Eoin Colfer wins race to write Bible sequel

Noted Irish author Eoin Colfer, writer of the Artemis Fowl series, has been commissioned by Harper-Collins to pen an as-yet unnamed sequel to the Bible. Harper-Collins won the publishing rights to the sequel for an undisclosed amount in September 2010.

[Spoilers Ahead]

The Bible is the story of the creation of the earth, as seen through the lives of an extended Jewish family through the ages, who end up leaving things in a bit of a mess, forcing God to send his son down to try and sort things out. Unfortunately, although he is reasonably successful in getting people to try to be nice to each other, he ends up being executed after being betrayed to the Romans (the villains of the book) by one of his best mates.

Eoin is quietly confident that he will be able to do the book justice with the sequel, simply telling us that he is looking forward to the challenge - "I think there will be something for everyone. Traditionalists will appreciate the return of several popular characters from the Bible, and readers who didn't warm to the original book will be relived to know that there will be less of the condescending moral tone of the original, along with some great new action sequences."

But he refuses to be drawn on whether many people's favourite character from the Bible, Jesus of Nazareth, will return. "Everyone asks me if Jesus Christ is coming back. It was hinted at in the original book, but I'm making no promises!"

The Bible is one of the most successful books ever written - second only to the Harry Potter series in gross revenues.